Person-centred care for dementia patients (Front end Android app)

Author

Tan, Nina Min Er

Date of Issue

2017-04-12

School

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Related Organization

Nanyang Technological University

Abstract

Dementia is a growing global health concern and till today, there still remains no proper cure for dementia. With dementia on the rise, researchers and doctors around the globe are trying their best to find better ways to reduce the occurrences of the disease and to better manage patients with the disease.
The better way to go about caring for dementia patients is through person-centred care, where caregivers would provide dementia patients with the appropriate support and care that they require. Caregivers would also be able to pay more attention to the personable needs of the patients such as their habits, abilities, preferences and interests. However, the biggest obstacle in ensuring such a method would be feasible is the lack of manpower due to the rising number of dementia patients.
With the rampant usage of smart devices, it has also been proven that the usage of smart devices would bring about convenience and greater functionality in medical practices. Therefore, employing the usage of smart devices would allow for better care and treatment of dementia patients.
The project aims to enhance person-centred care via the usage of an application technology to provide the caregivers with more flexibility and time to care for more patients. With that, version 1 of the Pear application has already been developed by the previous batch of seniors. The front-end team was then tasked to bring about enhancements and changes to the first version and produce a better second version of the Pear application. Enhancements made in version 2 of the Pear application were bug fixes to the existing patient information and a complete revamp of the care centre configuration’s functionality and implementation.
The application is to be managed by any suitable dementia care centre where caregivers would be able to access the application to take down details of the patients or schedule activities for them. The underlying outcome of the project is to be able to provide better care to the patients through the use of technology and to improve the patient’s condition through more efficient care and treatment.